18 Plati Akathi to Fteni Pounda

We have rounded Mirtos for only the second time in 2014 due to unfavourable winds. This coast is always going to be the most disturbed on Halki and the wind usually has a westerly component putting the wind on the beam. This is the reason for the little fighting chair. It is difficult to keep your footing in a beam sea with one hand on a rod and the other on a reel handle. A vessel like the Nikos Express can handle this better than Kinygos II and she will not have to slow down for fish! At the time of day that I do this trip the coast is always in shade unfortunately. At elapsed time 02:19 we got a triple header which kept us busy for a while at tick-over and Sari was also busy on the helm keeping her straight! It is not really rough at all but I struggle to clip the short centre. As we round a small headland I realise that the triple header was quadruple with a fish on the starboard inner which was too small to spring the clip. The clip has to be opened manually. The fish comes in and I try to re-set the starboard inner, the long centre is taken to add to the confusion! I carry on with Aribert while Clive deals with the fish as we cross the coast between Mirtos and Plati Akathi, which is in shadow of course! Note the unconventional way that Clive uses the chair! You can see a small rock away from the cliff. You can check the location of the boat on Google Earth using this rock for reference. As we reach Plati Akathi the short centre is taken again.
We cross the narrow bay of Fokias Ghalioui and at elapsed time 13:53 the thin headland of Steno Akathi can be seen as we cross Ghalioui Nikaoriou, another narrow bay.
We are passing Nikaori which is more of a hill than a headland as I set the long centre. I struggle with the clip because I am looking into the sun, so the day is not as gloomy as this coast looks! As we move on we round Fteni Pounda which is a low headland. I start to set the port inner and it is hit just as I stop it. It catches me by surprise, and causes amusement. We are crossing Chatzighianara vala and I re-set the port inner, without anything grabbing it this time as we start to round Kefali. I re-set the starboard flat line and I am not happy with the port flat line. It seems we have a small tangle involving the port flat line and the short centre. Not too surprising that, under the circumstances! I am still not happy but re-set the port flat line. OK so the starboard flat line and the short centre has tangled! We are now round Kefali and are back in the sun! I might be the captain but for some reason I think I can set the short centre without unclipping it, or pulling the clip in. This is in fact not possible! I re-set the starboard flat line as we cross the bay holding the small beach of Pirghos, which we cannot see! You will also note that the captain has to wash the blood off the deck.

This video overlaps 19 and 01 and is included there.